Lebanon peace talks seem hopeless

Arab League efforts to settle Lebanon's long-running political crisis are doomed to failure if Hezbollah refuses to negotiate seriously and insists on remaining independent of the government in Beirut. Government officials and Hezbollah leaders met Saturday in Qatar and reported no progress toward resolving the crisis after a leading Christian politician raised the issue of Hezbollah's weapons. The government wants the group disarmed as a condition for forming a coalition government but Hezbollah, which controls large swaths of Lebanese territory, demands to keep its military intact to wage war against Israel. The Doha, Qatar, meeting was arranged after the Arab League helped the Lebanese factions agree on a deal to settle several days of street violence that killed 67 and to accept a new president. Lebanon's National News Agency said the Doha talks began to break down after parliament majority leader Saad Hariri, a Sunni, and Samir Geagea, a Christian, raised the issue of Hezbollah's weapons. Geagea said the talks were certain to fail if the group, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization, kept its weapons independent of the government. "We can no longer accept Hezbollah as it is," Geagea told Al-Jazeera TV. The leader of Hezbollah's negotiating team, Mohammed Raad, said the weapons "must not be touched," according to the private LBC Television. But the demand appeared to be aimed at avoiding a repeat of last week's violence in Beirut and Tripoli, which erupted after the government tried to impose limits on Hezbollah. The government backed down. President Bush called the Doha meeting "a defining moment" as he left a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt. The United States and the Beirut government accuse Iran and Syria of aiding Hezbollah to undermine Middle East stability; Hezbollah accuses the anti-Syrian Beirut government of being America's servants. The Doha meeting marked the first time the Lebanese factions had met together.